I’m officially back from my trip to Japan, and is back to reality work. I tried not to use the word reality because I never consider a vacation something of a dream, nor do I consider my work a dreadful ordeal. To me, my job is really not that bad, so I shouldn’t complain.

But the thing is, before and after the trip, I feel some pressure for work. It’s not immense, but it’s there. Every morning when I wake up, and get on the train, I am worried by what I’m going to face that day. Will I commit something destructive? Will someone come back and complain about my wrongdoings? To be very honest, I’m a safe dentist. I don’t do anything unethical, and my clinical work doesn’t suck a lot. But the pressure is there, as if I’m going to lose my license sooner or later.

Perhaps it’s really time that I stopped feeling pressure for work, and started enjoying dentistry. Yes, I remembered about a year ago when I first started, I was less fearful about everything. I had even less experience back then, but I truly enjoyed my work, thinking I was indeed doing great things. Things that literally lessen others’ pain, things that potentially enrich people’s lives. OK, doing that takes time.